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Ministry of Development of North-East Region
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Major achievements of Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region during 2018
- Flow of Funds to North Eastern Region: The trend of budgetary allocation to MDoNER in the last few years reflects an increase of 51% allocation in BE 2018-19 compared against actual of 2015-16. MDoNER was allocated Rs. 1986.80 crore , Rs. 2495.84 crore , Rs.2682.45 crore  and Rs. 3000.00 crore  for the years 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively. The trend of allocation to North Eastern Region amongst the various Ministries/Departments  in the last few years has shown an increase of 65% in BE 2018-19 as compared against BE 2015-16. Non-Exempt Union Ministries made budgetary allocation of Rs. 29669.22 crore , Rs. 32180.08 crore , Rs. 40971.69 crore  and Rs. 47994.88 crore  for the years 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively.
- 10% Gross Budgetary Support : MDoNER, being the nodal Ministry, monitors and keeps track of expenditure under mandatory 10% GBS by non-exempted Ministries/Departments, since inception. As per information received from 51 non-exempted Ministries/ Departments, as on date, under 10% GBS, the actual expenditure in NER has been of Rs. 38845.26 crores as against RE allocation of Rs 40971.69 crores for the year 2017-18 for 54 non-exempted Ministries/Departments. As per PFMS data, the expenditure till 28th December, 2018 is Rs. 19960.66 crores  against the earmarked allocation  of Rs. 47994.88 crore for the entire year.
- Establishment of an Industrial Corridor in North Eastern Region: Government of Assam proposed for establishment of an Industrial Corridor in the North-Eastern Region  from Dawki  Shillong via Guwahati to Nagoan and from Golaghat via Dimapur via Imphal to Moreh . In view of the Asian Development Bank’s  engagement in the NER, Ministry of Finance has requested ADB for undertaking the feasibility study for the proposed North East industrial Corridor and to draw up scope and terms of reference for the study in consultation with Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion , Ministry of DoNER and the States concerned.
- NITI Forum for North East: NITI Forum for North East has been constituted under the chairmanship of Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog and co-chairmanship of Minister of State , DoNER. The members of the forum include CEO, NITI Aayog, Chief Secretaries of North Eastern States, Secretaries of key Ministries/ Departments, retired bureaucrats, economists and academicians. The terms of reference of the Forum, inter alia, include identification of various constraints on the way for accelerated, inclusive but sustainable economic growth in the North East Region of the country and to recommend suitable interventions for addressing identified constraints.
The first meeting of NITI Forum for North East was held under the chairpersonship of Hon’ble Vice-Chairman NITI Aayog and co-chairpersonship of Hon’ble Minister of State , Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region on 10.04.2018 in Agartala, Tripura. Subsequently, second meeting of NITI Forum for North East was held on 04.12.2018 in Guwahati, Assam. In the recently concluded 2nd Meeting, panel discussions were held in five key sectors, namely, Tourism, Pisciculture, Bamboo, Dairy, and Tea.
- North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme : The Guidelines for administering newly formulated scheme NESIDS has been circulated to all NE States. Since approval of NESIDS on 15.12.2017 with outlay of Rs. 1600 crore, projects worth of Rs. 1458.12 crore have already been selected for funding in a short span of one year. Out of these selected projects, 10 Projects worth of Rs. 473.11 crore have been sanctioned so far with token release of Rs.10.00 lakh for completing tender formalities. The average size of the sanctioned projects under NESIDS have increased to 47.00 crore from Rs. 3-5 crore under the erstwhile NLCPR projects. Major projects sanctioned under NESIDS are :-
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Sl. No.
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Project
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Cost

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1.
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Construction of three lane Road over Bridge at Jorhat in replacement of Railway LC gate No. ST-58 on Naali, Jorhatin Assam
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77.00
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2.
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Alternate Gravity Water Supply Scheme of Aizawl, Mizoram
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119.00
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3.
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Construction of two lane balanced cantilever bridge over river Kanaka at KayumDzongu in North Sikkim
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88.54
- North Eastern Council :
- The Note for the Cabinet on the schemes of NEC including continuation of existing NEC schemes at an estimated Rs. 4500 crores for three years upto March, 2020 has been approved.
- Union cabinet approved repositioning of NEC with Hon’ble Home Minister as ex officio Chairman & Hon’ble Minister, DoNER as Vice-Chairman.
- The 67th Plenary meeting of the NEC was held at Shillong on 9th & 10th July where Home Minister & MoS, DoNER presided the meeting. All the Hon’ble Governors and Chief Ministers of NE States participated.
- Schemes of NEC revamped with new projects under 100% central funding instead of the earlier block grant on 90:10 basis.
- North East Road Sector Development Scheme  extended till March, 2020 with an outlay of Rs.1000 crore.
- Previously, there was no fixed arrangement for distributing the funds into State or Central component. Now, the total funds available to NEC are proposed to be bifurcated in two components . The State component would be utilised for the projects in each state as per their share on normative allocation basis. For the Central component, the projects having regional character, requiring Inter-Ministerial intervention are to be taken up. Priority sectors have been identified such as Bamboo; Piggery; Regional Tourism; Higher Education, Tertiary Healthcare & Special Intervention in backward areas; Livelihood project; Science & Technology Interventions in NER; Survey & Investigation and NER Promotion. By this, a clear apportionment or division of sectors is ensured between DoNER and NEC to avoid duplication.
- Infrastructure Developments:
- Bogibeel Rail cum Road Bridge, the longest rail-cum-road bridge on Brahmaputra river was inaugurated on 25th December, 2018. The bridge will not only reduce the distance for the people of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam but also facilitate faster movement of troops and supplies to the Indo-China border in Arunachal Pradesh.
- Broad Gauge rail connectivity to Sikkim is to be provided vial the Sivok-Rangpo rail link. Recently, a meeting was held with the Govt. of West Bengal, in which targets were given for demarcation of forest land to be diverted, felling of trees, etc to be completed by April 2019, following which construction of the Railway Line can begin immediately.
- A New Greenfield Airport at Pakyong , first Airport in Sikkim, has been constructed at a cost of Rs 553.5 Cr.
- Ro-Ro service between Neamati-Kamlabari, in Assam, with length of 12.7 Km by waterway, which otherwise takes 410 Km of travel by road, has become operational w.e.f. 11.10.2018.
- Under the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade, between India and Bangladesh, for the projects on development of fairway from Sirajganj to Daikhowa and Ashuganj to Zakiganj, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority has awarded the work for dredging.
- The project of construction of Bridges across Diband and Lohit river systems including approach roads between Chowkham-Digaru and Bomjur-Meka in the State of Arunachal Pradesh have been inaugurated and opened to public.
- Extended Gram Swaraj Abhiyan/Aspirational Districts Programme:
- For monitoring implementation of seven programmes of GSA, senior officers of DoNER/NEC have been appointed as Nodal Officers for each Aspirational District in addition to the Prabhari Officers. There are 14 Aspirational districts in NER viz. Namsai , Dhubri, Darrang, Goalpara, Barpeta, Hailakandi Baksa, Udalguri , Ribhoi , Chandel , Mamit , West Sikkim , Kiphire  & Dhalai .
- A one day workshop on GSA for NE States was organized on 24.05.2018 under the co-chairmanship of Hon’ble Rural Development Minister & MoS, DoNER.
- A Video Conference was also organized by Ministry on 17.07.2018 to review implementation of EGSA in Aspirational Districts of NER.
- In pursuance of the decision taken in the review meeting chaired by the Cabinet Secretary on July 18, 2018, a review meeting cum workshop was organised jointly by NITI & MDoNER in Guwahati on July 27, 2018 to monitor implementation of EGSA in Aspirational Districts of NER.
- Rs. 1 Crore untied funds to each of the 14 aspirational districts on NER have been approved for funding from NEC.
- Information & Communication Technology : The Ministry of DoNER has collaborated closely with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology  in formulation of the Digital North East Vision document. One of the key deliverables of this vision is a GIS based Decision Support System  for field functionaries like Deputy Collectors and other district level officials to aid in development planning. This was inaugurated by the Hon'ble Minister of MeitY on 11th August 2018 at Guwahati, Assam. This was achieved through DoNER's close collaboration with National Centre of Geo Informatics  and North East Space Application Centre . In another encouraging development which has positive implications for the Government of India in its ACT EAST thrust, NESAC is slated to host Research Scholars in the field of GIS and Space Technology from the BIMSTEC countries as part of India's outreach into BIMSTEC and South East Asia. While announcing this at BIMSTEC Summit recently at Khatmandu, Nepal, the Hon'ble Prime Minister also announced that under Science & Technology Interventions in North East Region  programme BIMSTEC countries will be collaborating with scientific institutions like NEIST, Jorhat for R&D and other activities.
- Science and Technology Interventions in North East : STINER has been initiated to bring relevant technologies from S&T institutions to the farmers/artisans of NER. The Hon’ble MoS, DoNER laid the foundation of STINER at CSIR, NEIST, Jorhat on 29th October, 2018 for the STINER HUB as well as the State Node of Nagaland. The mother TFC will be set up at CSIR-NEIST, Jorhat for which Rs. 14 Cr. has been released by NEC. For the eight spokes across NE States, MDoNER has released Rs. 5 crore to SASRD for setting up the first State node STINER-common facility centre  at Medziphema Campus, Nagaland. Hon’ble PM has mentioned STINER activities of DoNER in his speech at BIMSTEC Summit at Kathmandu and proposed scientific collaboration under STINER Plus.
- Livelihoods: This Ministry implements two major livelihood projects namely World Bank aided NERLP & IFAD funded NERCORMP. The focus is now more towards doubling farmer’s income through proper value chain management across all rural economic activities. Following are few interventions initiated to alleviate drudgery of farmers and artisans & improve their livelihood.
- MoU signed between AirBnB, NEC & NETDC to boost tourism and create positive travel experiences for both domestic and international visitors in the North East. MoUs also signed for strategic partnerships by the NERLP and NERCORMP with Airbnb to generate technology-enabled livelihood opportunities in tourism and hospitality for micro-entrepreneurs in the North East of India.
- MoU signed between NERCORMP and HESCO  for leveraging of community resources and appropriate local resources based technology for development.
- MDoNER in collaboration with World Bank held two days workshop on 4th & 5th October, 2018 focusing on creating value chains. The workshop identified high-impact segments and gaps in existing value chains in select products  to strengthen Regional Value Chains in North East India. It offered new perspectives on agriculture value chains, technology, logistics & trade and emphasized on keeping with changing trends in global demands of fresh fruits, vegetables, spices etc. for high returns.
- Bamboo: Bamboo is one of the natural resources of NER as it hosts above 60% of the growing stock of Bamboo in the country. MDoNER initiated celebration of Annual World Bamboo Day on 18th September, to advocate the versatile bamboo & dissemination of using bamboo as building material. MDoNER in collaboration with CSIR-CBRI, Roorkee convened a national workshop on “Utilization of Bamboo as Building Material in NER” on 17th September, 2018. Recognizing that NER is in high seismic zone, MDoNER is advocating usage of bamboo as building material in close collaboration with Bureau of Indian Standards, CPWD, NBRI etc. MDONER as co Chair of the National Bamboo Mission being managed by MOAFW continues to play a proactive role in the implementation of the NBM across 8 states of NER.
- NE Venture Capital Fund: This Ministry in collaboration with NEDFi created a venture capital fund for NER with total corpus of Rs. 100 crores to empower entrepreneurs and encourage start-ups in NER. The first three cheques were handed over by the Prime Minister in Mizoram on 16th December, 2018. In addition, this Ministry in collaboration with DIPP has initiated start-up India North East Yatra which will conduct workshop in all NE States. The yatra will kick start on 7th January, 2019 in Imphal, Manipur.
- Inter-Ministerial Committees : This Ministry has set up various IMCs keeping in view the coordinating role it plays. In 2018, two new IMCs namely IMC- Health & Nutrition and IMC-Medicinal & Aromatic Plants  have been set up in addition to six IMCs already constituted earlier :-
- The IMC on Health & Nutrition has been constituted under the chair of Secretary, DoNER on 01.11.2018, by involving Ministries of H&FW, AYUSH, WCD, DWS, HRD, D/o Health Research and NEC, to review and coordinate the measures taken by various Ministries/ Departments for improving the health and nutritional status of the people of NER and assist in creating synergies among schemes/ programmes of various Ministries/Organisations and State Governments. The first meeting of the IMC was convened on 7th December, 2018.
- The IMC on MAPs has been constituted under the chair of Secretary, DoNER and co-chaired by Secretary, AYUSH. Two meetings have been convened on 12th March & 14th September, 2018.
- North Eastern Handicrafts & Handlooms Development Corporation Ltd. : NEHHDC is a PSU of MDoNER which has been able to register a profit for the first time in the year 2017-18. Joint workshops have been conducted by MDoNER and GIZ with weavers of NER and to propagate/ replicate Flying Eight looms for Eri silks weavers of NER.
- North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Ltd. : NERAMAC has sourced more than 12 MT of Queen Pineapple from Tripura and Organic Kiwi from Ziro in Arunachal Pradesh, for which remuneration given to the farmers was at prices higher than last year, in keeping with the Govt. Of India’s objective of increasing farmer income. NERAMAC held workshop at Sikkim in which 100 farmers were registered and authorized to use the GI tag. GI tagging is first of its kind in NER which gives benefits to farmers and NERAMAC had completed GI tagging of 10 products and 9 more products are under process.
- Financial Assistance of Rs. 200 crore approved by Ministry of DoNER for reconstruction of totally damaged/washed away infrastructure due to floods in 2017 in NE States.